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In less than a month, Fred Rahmer will be officially inducted into the National Sprint Car Hall of Fame. So it was only fitting that Rahmer’s 500th career feature win would come during the month of May and it came against at stellar field of competitors in Saturday’s O’Reilly’s All Star Circuit of Champions event at Lincoln Speedway.
Rahmer started on the front row but settled into second for the first 13 laps before making the winning move and never looking back in taking his 164th career Lincoln Speedway feature win. The win was worth $5,000 to the Chad and Jen Clemens owned sprint car team.
"It’s nice to win my 500th win on an All Star show," stated Rahmer, after his third win of the 2009 season at Lincoln. "I’ve got a lot of respect for those guys. Dale Blaney, Greg Wilson, Danny Smith and the whole group of other guys are real good and it’s nice to win against them. I feel very fortunate."
Brian Leppo, who paced the 38-car field during time trials grabbed the early lead over Rahmer and All Star kingpin Dale Blaney.
Doug Esh, who started fourth was making some noise, taking third on lap three and racing his way by Rahmer on the sixth lap.
But the event’s only caution came out for Mark Smith, who was sitting against the inside guardrail in turn two. According to All Star rules, the field was reverted back to the prior lap, putting Rahmer back into the runner-up spot.
"The real race was when they put me back in front of Doug on that caution," said Rahmer, of Salfordville. "They came over the radio and said I was ahead of him the lap before."
Rahmer went on defense and turned it into another milestone win. He followed Leppo, who was tight on the bottom for several more laps before driving around Leppo off the second turn to lead lap 14.
Rahmer caught the rear of the field during the final laps of the race as Leppo, Esh and Alan Krimes began to close the gap but he never missed a beat.
"I kept waiting for Brian to move up but that’s what happens when you start on the pole," he said. "He led all those laps on the bottom so I just kept working him and working him until we finally got by. The track was really good tonight and you could move around and race. It made for good entertainment and I appreciate everyone spending their money to come watch us race."
Esh, of Lancaster was able to get around Leppo on the final lap for a runner-up finish with Leppo, of New Oxford third, Krimes of Denver fourth and Hartford, Ohio’s Blaney fifth.
Completing the top 10 were Stevie Smith, Lance Dewease, Daryn Pittman, Greg Hodnett and Niki Young.
Heats for the 38 All Star sprinters were won by Daryn Pittman, Brian Montieth, Chad Layton and Niki Young with Jim Siegel winning the B-Main. Brian Leppo paced time trials with a one lap time of 13.174 seconds. Fred Rahmer won the 6-lap Dash.
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